Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
In conventional process control systems, human-machine interface (HMI) applications are used to generate graphical displays, which provide content associated with the industrial processes being monitored. The HMI applications ideally provide human operators with a continuous view of the processes being monitored. This may be done using process graphics that contain numerical and graphic elements representing variables and parameters of the processes being monitored and controlled. This may allow, for example, the human operators to ensure proper operation of the processes and to identify and resolve any problems that arise.
In general, a graphical process display may contain many different graphical elements in an overview representation of a process. In such cases, the amount of detailed information that can be displayed for any specific process variable may be limited.